August 8, 2016
This year marks 30 years since the .AU country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) was originally allocated by to a computer programmer at Melbourne University.
That programmer was Robert Elz. He developed policies and took care of day-to-day operations until the task grew to be too much.
As the number of domains under management grew, so did the challenges in subsequent years - AU's road was anything but smooth. This led to the au Domain Administration (auDA) calling a tender for a provider to implement a secure and streamlined registry system for.com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .asn.au and .id.au.
That tender was won by AusRegistry.
"Despite all the work involved in getting to that point, at go-live we at AusRegistry knew we’d only made it to the starting line. There was still much work to do," says Adrian Kinderis, co-founder and CEO of AusRegistry.
AusRegistry still plays this crucial role today.
"We look back proudly at having played our small part in the development of .au... I get the feeling .au has plenty more challenges and opportunities as it reaches its next phase of evolution," said Mr. Kinderis.
The next phase of .AU's evolution is about to begin under the guidance of auDA's new Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Cameron Boardman. Mr. Boardman takes over from Chris Disspain; who spent 16 years at the helm of the organisation.
Despite a few bumps and bruises along the way, the .AU domain space has grown strong, won respect and enjoys a high degree of awareness and trust among consumers; making Australian domain names an acquisition sought after by businesses and organisations.
There are quite stringent criteria associated with registering Australian domains, but this helps preserve the integrity of the space and keeps its high standing in the local and international community.
The namespace reached 1 names by November 2007 and 2 million by 2011. Around 3,062,000 Australian domain names are registered today, with the 3 million milestone reached just over a year ago. That 3.06 million works out to approximately one domain for every 8 Australian residents.
Read more: A Brief History Of .AU Domains
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AUSTRALIAN OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1996
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